Governing, Or At Least Trying To, Versus Fear And Loathing
Led by Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Democrats passed President Joe Biden’s landmark $.17 billion Build Back Better bill.
The vote on Friday morning was 220-213. Every Republican voted against the legislation as did one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine.
Afterwards, Pelosi held a news conference where she hammered House Republicans, reminding them of what governing could and should be:
“It’s for the people. It should be bipartisan. The fact that they would rather give tax cuts to the richest people at 83% of the benefits going to the top 1% without any pay-for, is a stark difference between what we do in this legislation”.
This is true.
What is also true, Republican Kevin McCarthy – Minority ‘Leader’, made a complete ass of himself from 8:38 p.m. Thursday through 5 a.m. Friday in a pitiful attempt to stall the vote.
Trying to out perform the former guy, McCarthy spent those eight and a half hours ranting about, well, everything that’s in the legislation, some items not in, and a few other odd topics.
He started off with, “Never in American history has so much been spent at one time”. That’s not true. The Build Back Better legislation is about one tenth of the cost of the former guy’s 2017 tax cut for the rich.
McCarthy doesn’t like what the money is going to be spent on. For example, the legislation will:
boost child care assistance, create universal pre-kindergarten, reduce seniors’ prescription drug costs, increase efforts to curb climate change, health insurance, Medicare covering hearing aids, and green energy – to name a few.
But McCarthy didn’t come unhinged only over the BBB bill. No, he brought in such topics as:
China, Hitler, Thanksgiving, Elon Musk, Vice President Kamala Harris’ laugh, Abraham Lincoln, his childhood in California, the influence of the movie “Red Dawn” on his politics, and, of course, the Jim Crow era – to name a few.
Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland had a hammer of his own:
Kevin McCarthy is “more upset about climate action and universal pre-K and Medicare covering hearing than he is about his own guy, Gosar, creating a violent homicidal cartoon that he put up on the internet and refused to take down”. And, Raskin added, Republicans are “really upset because we censured him for it yesterday”.
No question. Nancy owns little Kevin. At least until the 2022 mid-terms.
Baby, I’m Yours / Barbara Lewis
